Positive Audit Results for Whitehall School District

At a school board meeting March 6, Debbie Ouellette with Newland and Company presented her audit findings for the district. Superintendent John Sullivan said they received the highest rating a district can obtain, and they have a really good net position and rating.

The trustees also approved the re-hire of K-5 Principal Kurtis Koenig, 6-12 Principal Hannah Nieskens and the resignation of Sullivan. According to Sullivan, the board has advertised the Superintendent position in-house.

Drivers Education at the school is scheduled to start March 22 and Sullivan said the program that will run from March to June currently has 23 students.

The calendar for the 2019-20 school year was approved by the board and school will run from August 28 to June 4. Sullivan said the calendar has longer time off for Spring Break and Christmas which will be from December 21 to January 5.

The trustees also voted to approve resolution (SB 307) that would allow them to impose a permissive levy to increase the Building Reserve Funds in both the High School and Elementary School Districts.

Sullivan said the possible non-vote increase would create a sub-fund in the building reserve fund to help cover maintenance issues. The trustees passed the same resolution the past two years but did not approve it as part of their budget.

The estimated budget amount for the high school fund is $28,200 and would increase the district mill total by 2.76 mills. This would equate to an increase of $3.72 on a $100,000 house and $7.44 on a $200,000 home. The estimated budget for the elementary district is $42,300. This would increase the mill total by 7.36 mills. This would equate to an increase of $9.94 for a $100,000 house and $19.98 for a $200,000 home.

The budgeted amount for Bus Depreciation, Adult Education, Tuition and Transportation will not change for 2019-20 in either district.

The impacts are based on current certifiable taxable valuations from the current fiscal school year. The taxable evaluation for the high school district in 2017-18 was $9,915,175 and $10,233,213 in 2018-19. The 2017-18 evaluation in the elementary school district was $5,735,075 in 2017-18 and the $5,745,178 in 2018-19.

The high school is currently operating at $138,673 below their maximum general fund amount and the elementary school is operating at $249,889 below their maximum budget. These numbers mean the high school is operating at 91 percent of their maximum allowed budget and the elementary school is at 87 percent. Anything under 100 percent means that voters have not approved or been asked to approve more funding.